Summary

An unexpected public health crisis will inevitably have an ever-lasting impact on any residential or congregate care setting that houses some of our most vulnerable youth.  Although we cannot ensure the safety of all our staff and clients, there is a lot that we can do to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic on our residential programs.  This guide has provided lessons learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizes the importance of leadership, consistent communication and collaboration, advocacy, and flexibility to quickly meet shifting research and policies.  

 As we continue to navigate through this significant change in our work practices, it is always important to remind ourselves about the opportunities that these shifts may present.  Organizations should take stock of the advances in tele-health and the subsequent opportunities to engage many of our clients more effectively and/or more often.  The necessity of providing flexible working schedules and spaces for our staff has increased our ability to manage staff remotely and generated opportunities for us to potentially increase worker engagement, productivity, and retention.  The need to provide constant and ever-changing information to our staff and clients has helped us develop effective messaging techniques that can easily be extrapolated to other agency-wide initiatives.

To meet our challenges head on and identify opportunities during these troubling times, it becomes imperative for organizations to create forums in which to share best practices, identify mistakes and lessons learned, advocate in numbers, and generally support one another. This guide has been an effort to do just that.